Thus the representatives of the towns were in no hurry to present themselves at the meeting of the Estates.
It might have been different had they believed that their money would be employed for the good of the realm.

But they knew that the King would first use it to make gifts to his barons.

The deputies were invited to come and devise means for the repression of the pillage and plunder from which they were suffering;[591] and, when at the risk of their lives they did come to the royal presence, they were forced to consent to the _taille_ in silence.

The King's officers threatened to have them drowned if they opened their mouths.

At the meeting of the Estates held at Mehun-sur-Yevre in 1425 the men from the good towns said they would be glad to help the King, but first they desired that an end be put to pillage, and my Lord Bishop of Poitiers, Hugues de Comberel, said likewise.